misplaced attack
by hidden stranger
Summary: Having worked in the jade palace for years with little contact to the residents inside besides Shifu and Oogway, what happens when an accident between Zheng and Tigress occurs. What will be the outcome? Apologies for the poor summary, please read!


A/N, greetings all who are reading this, glad to know you stumbled upon my latest in the Kung Fu Panda works I've put together. Having watched this film several times, I think I can associate better than I thought I would with one character, Zheng, the messenger goose. He's just trying to do his job and ends up in the middle of things much bigger than he. Not wanting a fight and to simply do his duty, this character intrigues me enough to throw out an attempt at a story for him. Thank you all for reading and please feel free to leave a review

Disclaimer: I own no one in Kung Fu Panda.

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Rain poured off the roof tiles of the Jade Palace, slidding down the sides forming small waterfalls at each corner of the roof. The rainy season had come upon the valley early on this year, cancelling many villagers plans, but the daily plans at the Jade Palace never stopped for mere weather conditions. Master Shifu wasn't the kind to allow his team of masters to grow into expectations of being allowed to lounge around when they were a group that was supposed to be ready for anything. He watched over the five battle out in the drenching rain, all working even harder than they thought possible. The storm seemed to reflect his impatient mood that day. It had been a build up of small things that had gone wrong for the red panda throughout the day, leaving him tighter wound and his refusal for error at its highest.

Crane's wings ached terribly with each passing flap as he continued his rolls in the air. Viper dearly felt the need for a good warm muscle soothing bath as she threw herself into the air to delfect Monkey's attacks which came at her slower and slower, due to the simian's departing energy. Mantis had been forced to sit out on the sidelines after finally collapsing and hitting his head on the stone floor. Tigress and Po continuosly cracked their necks and backs after each encounter with eachother. The panda was slowly picking up Tigress's style, but it left no room for remaining strength.

Po, after three more rounds, backed off of the feline, requesting a break to catch his breath for fear of passing out and dying, ever the slightly dramatic. Tigress stood back and allowed the bear to stand, hunched over as he panted. Master Shifu slowly clenched a fist from his perch as he watched his students appear to take it easy on the dragon warrior, whom he knew, needed the harshest training for the most effective results in combat. He couldn't let the bear begin to think that an opponent would let him catch his breath if he was wasting his energy, and then he looked to the one allowing it to happen, Tigress. Anger began to cloud the red panda's vison as he found himself unable to hold back any more from what he could see before him.

Jumping down onto the floor of the arena, Master Shifu walked up to Tigress, who also appeared to be slightly winded, this slowly began to push the red panda's final straw for the day.

"Tigress, why are you just standing there? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?" he bellowed from his small frame, making the feline cringe as her master shot dissapointment in her. The Five stood in silence, watching their master begin to lose his temper.

"You know as well as I do that Po needs the hardest training he can be given, you can't be lenient, do you not understand that Tigress? I would think that after all the years of my teaching, you would understand the strong nessecity for endurance training!" Tigress's head sunk slightly as she was ridiculed, she spoke when she believed her master had finshed his tirade on her pride.

"Master, he needed one break, we've been training the entire day. Noone's stopped for a moment until now, we are all exausted." She hated to reveal that she was fatigued but it was true and she would never lie to her master, but she had a feeling she shouldn't have spoken at all. Shifu glared at the feline for a moment, causing her to glance down at the floor in shame for speaking out against her master before he finally composed himself and drew in a breath of control.

"*sigh* WELL, then if you are all only going to dissapoint me with your lack of effort for today, then there's really no reason I need to be here right now IS THERE?" His last words sent everyone into a grimace as he turned and left the furious five and the dragon warrior in the arena. When he had departed, Po walked up to Tigress,

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean for you to get in trouble like that Tigress, I should have let you continue on. " His voice sincere and apologetic as it could be. Tigress turned and faced him, her shoulders drooped down in embarrasment, a look of saddeness in her orange eyes. "No Po, don't feel sorry for me, I know he didn't mean...all of...what he said." As the rain continued to fall, the rest of the five headed inside to warm their chilled bodies, she motioned to the panda to go on without her. Po looking back at the tiger as she stood out in the rain by herself, arms folded behind her back, posture straight, yet her head hung in shame. Tigress barely noticed as the raindrops flew from the sky, coming crashing down on head and shoulders, running down her face and chest. She stood in a statuelike form for a few minutes before shaking her head slightly, her right hand closing into a fist. She needed to be alone, for what she knew all to well was coming next, something noone needed to see.

Slamming the doors open in the training hall, she stomped her drenched body inside, the warmth of the room running through her body, heating up her bloodstream once more from the chilled level it was used to on outdoor rainy days such as this. Racing over to the swinging clubs of oblivion she began her attack on the wood victims. Each blow from her paws sending splinters of wood and shards of metal into every direction. All she wanted to do was to meet and exceed the expectations of her master. Whenever she was told she was a step behind, and being humilated for it, struck nerves with the feline greatly, sending her into a private and vicious rage throughout the training hall. Unsheathing her claws, she left deep gashes into each bit of wood beam she struck, working herself until she was in an exausted state. Not hearing the door creak open behind her, the feline continued her rampage on the training equipment as another entered the room. Walking in and immediatly wishing he hadn't chosen this room of all the places to take a shortcut, Zheng the messanger goose for the jade palace entered as quietly as he could. Slinking along the sides of the training hall, the bird tried to keep himself as invisible as he thought possible while the cat raged on with her attack on the training equipment. Already having made it 3/4 of the way through the hall, Zheng looked up at the door at the end of the training course, he was nearly there, all he had to do was finish his way fast.

Tigress, in her frustration, being done with the last of the clubs, struck the last tall club arm and sent it spinning. At the time Tigress had struck the club and sent it into motion, Zheng had at the same time leapt into the air and attempted to fly the last 1/4th of the way out of the training hall, causing the metal claws at the end of the club to strike him in the left wing forcing a cry of pain out of the bird as he was, sent crashing against the right wall.

The angered feline's attention was disrupted as she heard a yelp of pain and turned to see a golden clad goose flying into the armor and training weaponry. The rack of armor tipped over as the goose fell to the floor and onto his body, covering him from view. Tigress quickly leapt out of her position and ran to the pile of armor on the floor next to the right wall.

_Oh no, oh please don't be hur-_ Her mental request was cutshort as she dug through the armor to find the bird at the bottem lying unconcious. Upon picking him up, she saw that his left wing was broken, and he had a slight cut on the lower side of his neck. As he got out of his dazed state of mind, Zheng looked up and jumped out of the feline's arms and backed away as fast as he could. Noticing he was backed to a wall, she had him cornered, her wrath able to tear him to shreds at any moment. He clutched his wing in pain and clamped his eyes shut for a moment, his body shaking all over.

He had always been somewhat afriad of the feline master in his years of working at the palace. Granted he'd seen her grow up as she was trained under Shifu but he'd never really been able to actually see any other side of her besides her fighting as she'd grown from a cub into adulthood, and he had been around the times when she was at her worst to see what she could do to someone if they were in her way. In general, he prefered to just stay out of her way, or her general vicinity. He wasn't trying to be rude, just, she was a very difficult person to read and well its not really as if she noticed him alot all that much anyhow he thought.

What he might of wanted to know was, as he had been working at the palace, she HAD noticed him. As she grew, Tigress found Zheng's presence enjoyable and mood lightening at times. When she was a cub, Shifu would tuck her in at night and she would ask many times for him to tell her the story of Zheng's first days at the palace. It was true, the bird's beginning jobs at the palace had not been easy for him, and he had taken a while to learn what spots in the palace were smart to land in, and where would hurt himself. These stories of him always made Tigress laugh. Whenever he flew in with important news for Oogway or Shifu and ended up crashing into one of the many beams at the palace, She could be seen stifling a laugh behind her paw as she waited for her master to come back for her training for that day. Now, to see him, hurt, shaking and scared miserably by her presence, she felt a tug at her heartstrings for a moment. Really, it was the last thing she wanted, for one of the few people she knew to be as scared of her as the others had been back in the orphanage. She quickly brought herself to a calm peaceful state before looking back at the goose. Softening her expression as much as she could she tried to get his attention,

"Zheng? Zheng can you hear me?" She questioned softly, not wanting to spook the poor bird anymore then he already was, Zheng continued to shake, his eyes refusing to open and meet hers. Slowly sitting down on the hardwood floor of the hall, her legs lying straight out, she called to him again.

"Zheng, please come here." The bird opened his eyes as he still shook slightly and looked at her. She appeared harmless now, gone was the rage and the violence within her, she sat somewhat like master Po did, her shoulders slung low and large paws resting on her thighs of her black pants. Still clutching his hurt wing, he slowly approached her cautiosly. Now beak to muzzle with the master, he looked around quicly as she wrapped him up in one arm, being very careful to not touch his bad wing.

"I'm so sorry Zheng, I didn't mean to hurt you." She said, gingerly running her free striped paw down the back of his head, over his small yellow hair tie in the back and down his neck. He felt strangely familar with this action, having experianced it with Tai Lung, whom he had expected to kill him without a moment's thought, and yet he ended up being injured by the leader of the furious five, how ironic. He looked up into her eyes, seeing that she was completely sincere with what she was saying. Nodding somewhat quickly, he replied to the tiger master.

I..I know Master Tigress." He said hastily, the fear in his reply told the female warrior he was still unconvinced.

"Zheng, I can tell you're scared, scared of me...I want you to know though, you don't have to be. I would never hurt you intentionally." She said, holding the golden bird in her paws, his eyes looked into hers, down at the floor and then back again. He took a deep breath before gasping in pain as it forced his wing to move lowered him a bit to get a better view of his neck injury. It was bleeding minimually, some of it getting onto her red vest.

"Listen, I need to get you to the medical ward okay? They'll fix you up back to normal." He nodded slowly in agreement. He braced himself as she stood up with him in her paws, putting himself as close to her as he could without hurting his wing, but also to help her carry the injured messanger. They headed out the doors of the training hall and out to the main stairway toward the medical ward. As they neared the hallway of the ward, the poor landing bird broke the silence btween them. Putting his beak up to her ear he spoke,

"*sigh* thank you for helping me master tigress, I know you actually had more important things to do right now other than...well this." The master slightly turned her head to the goose as she walked.

"Zheng, this was my fault, I should have been more alert of others around me before getting too far into releasing my frustration."

"Well for the record, I want you to know, I'm not afriad of you as who you are. I'm just, scared of your anger. Sometimes, I've watched you from a distance as I'm on my way out the door with orders and...you look soo, torn." Zheng's word choice sent a confused and depressing curiosity through the cat's features.

"Its true, I've let my emotions get ahold of me when they shouldn't have. Theres times when Master Shifu scares me too you know? In a way, I'm constantly scared by him, scare of failing him...like today." She stopped for a moment as that thought took hold of her. Zheng took his good wing and brushed it against the underside of her chin. "Yeah, he is very...not impatient but well deamands results quickly. " Tigress nodded as they continued on into the ward and she set him down, letting the others geese and pigs take a look at him. Giving the bird a slight wave goodbye, she left the medical ward and headed for her room.

_a few weeks later_

The five and the dragon warrior sat out in the cold morning areana, awaiting their master's arrival for that day's instruction. The air was crisp from the ending of the long storm that had passe over the valley, light shining through in strips through the clouds overhead. Shifu had found the ability to confront his student/ adopted daughter and apologize for his reactions, knowing full well he truly shouldn't have flown off the handle as he had. The two of them were on good terms once again, Shifu woul do his best to restrain his incompetent temper and Tigress would do whatever she could to keep in her instructor's orders. In the stands on a free day to himself due to injury, sat the golden robed goose Zheng. He had promised to oversee the training for the day alongside Shifu. Tigress looked up at the goose who sat along the first few rows of the stands next to her master. He nodded and waved with his good wing, while not trying to disturb his other which was wrapped in a sling. Tigress smiled slightly back at him before turning to her teamates as they prepared for another round of face offs between one another.

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A/N, hey thank you guys for sticking with the story enoughto get to read this, I really had to get this one out of my system, I was never looking for a true romance between these two characters but there may have been some slight hints of it in certain parts. Please leave a review and tell me what you personaly thought of the story and maybe what I could have changed or done differently. Thanks again for reading and have a nice day.


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